BruceBoening

Boy, what can I say... Awesome collection. And I agree with your statement in your profile... leave the patina as much as possible to last racing condition. In my gunsmithing hobby people want me to restore firearms back to original condition and I have the hardest time convincing them to just get things working again and let it go at that. For some reason the Moss really stands out and catches my eye as the "classic example" 1/4 from my era... 1957-1960. Don't remember the extra roll bar bracing though....thought they had just the single bent tube like my Kurtis. Oh, well.. good memory... just short. -Bruce

Howdy again guys. Today when I was going thru some old Hurricane Ike flooded papers in my garage... ran across a few items of interest from the early days of the track at Scholes Field in Galveston. Sorry about the bad quality but they have been thru a flood you know. Oh, that's my sister in my virgin, never been run, Kurtis in Sept. 1958. It was my 7th birthday present on the day the picture was taken on the runway apron at Scholes. Up to that point I had just been getting the feel of some Offy 1/2 demo cars they had at the airport that had the upper front cowl that opened up for easy entry and exit and I believe that had centrifical cluthes in them also. I used to have a blast in those Offy's running all over the airport aprons. Wonder what ever happened to those cars? Enjoy. Bruce 1/4. Update..... Randy, just got around to looking at a blowup of the color photo with the cars lined up at the start / finish. I'm now certain that was not taken in Galveston because I know we didn't have a wall. I'm sort of thinking it was a later picture either at Pasadena or perhaps up at the Garland Nationals? Really don't recognize many of the cars either as being from the Houston area. Any ideas? I'm leaning toward Garland because the gray or powder blue car on the outside front row is from Gladewater, TX which is about 50 miles to the East of Garland. Like my dad used to say, he had a good memory but it was just too short - ha.

Howdy Gene and welcome to the forum. Keep those great stories and pictures coming. I'm like you.... everytime I pass by Gulfgate I look over at where the track used to be and memories start buzzing around in my empty little head. I even think about the cafeteria Picadilly's I think that used to be adjacent to the track. We ate there after every race and I loved their chocolate ice box pie boy. Randy, How in the world was I able to get away with that crazy 1/4 (one slash four) number I had on my car the whole time. I've often wondered about that also. -Bruce

Danny, Did a little research and saw that Johnny Parsons also drove for your dad in 1979. He was another great quarter-midget racer from back in our day along with his half brothers Dana and Pancho Carter. They mainly raced in the Indianapolis and Terre Haute areas as kids. Also see that Jerry Sneva was the 1977 Indy Rookie of the Race / Rookie of the Year beating out other notable rookies as Janet Guthrie, Danny Ongais, Bobby Olivero, etc. What a charmed life you had growing up around all the various types of racing. Fantastic. -Bruce

Great to see all the "old" faces again. Looks like ya'll are leaning and barely holding on to each other for the picture. Did somebody take ya'll's wheelchairs and walkers away for the picture?

How about a Pacemaker with headers and side-pipes ????????

Howdy Danny from Bruce in Galveston, TX. Welcome to the forum. Sorry, I'm a late responder but as the others know I chase NASCAR around the country as time and money is available and I'm often gone for extended time periods. Wow, I read all you're posts and what an honor to "know" someone from one of the famous families of early Quarter Midget racing. Personally, I never liked Pacemakers for a couple selfish reasons. One, I was stuck in my Kurtis 500 for my career and my dad wouldn't buy me a Pacemaker. Secondly, and most importantly I could never beat the local Pacemaker's... namely Randy and his buddy Coggie Pierce even after I upgraded to a Solt engine. - ha Curious, I saw you mention ya'll had a shop in Van Nuys, CA around 1956. My uncle Joe Boening was very instrumental in establishing QM racing in SoCal about that time, or so I'm told. His sons, my cousins Eddie Boening and Bill Boening both raced and did very well in the SoCal area. They lived in Van Nuys and raced out of Van Nuys all during the 1950's and was wondering if you or your dad recall the name. I think they moved to Reseda in the early 60's but I know they raced out of Van Nuys during the 50's Again, welcome to the forum and keep the memories coming. -Bruce ps - It's hard to tell on the photo but I also had a lot pinstriping done on my two-tone blue Kurtis. The front nose and rear turtle back were very elaborate. You can also just see some of the striping surrounding the external kill switch just above the hand brake. It was all done by a guy in Galveston who went by the name of Bobo. Wish I had some better pictures but Hurricane Ike took care of that.

Just tooting my own horn.... Found this on the back page of the Freeway Quarter Midget Racing News of 11/9/1958. Unlike Randy's front page write-up, I only got a single, 4" column on the back page. I also included the adjacent column showing I didn't even qualify a time the previous week. Good grief.

This is off topic for this forum but just noticed that Houston Raceway Park has changed their name to Royal Purple Raceway. Money talks I guess. http://www.royalpurpleraceway.com/

Randy, Thanks for posting those items... I appreciate it. Didn't notice until after I emailed you that you were listed as a member of the Dallas QMA, Car #76? -Bruce

Welcome Kyle, Really great photos and keep them and the stories coming. Randy, et al, I'm still chasing NASCAR around the country so missed out on the some of the posts....stupid me (for chasing NASCAR) as it looks like the 48 car is going to get lucky again this year, oh well. Maybe he'll get put in the fence in turn 2 at Texas like he did last fall. That's where smart azz's belong anyway, you know Randy? Photo below is our most recent "family portrait" with me, the wife and kids. -Bruce Insert - All I can say Bruce is.. the girls are beautiful! -Randy

I see that Jay has modified his listing of that Grand Prix on Craig's List and glad he intends to restore it. Only Grand Prix I remember in Galveston was a green one driven by an asian kid named Rene. His father was a doctor. Don't recall them ever racing anywhere except at the Galveston airport. -Bruce

Randy, I remember a newspaper or newsletter that we had for Houston area racers back in the 50's... Think it was called "The Quarter Midget News" or something like that. I know I had a bunch of them that got flooded by Ike along with my other stuff that somebody threw out without my knowledge or approval. I suspect a little red-headed left-winged geeky girl that showed up at my house to "help" us clean up the mess after the storm. She was driving a silver Mini-Cooper of all things. Anyway, just curious if you have any copies of that newspaper laying around somewhere? -Bruce

Randy, The one thing I "do" remember about her car was the scoop. Great find. You continue to amaze me. -Bruce

Don't know if this has been posted before... but it's pretty neat. Hot Rod magazine cover from February 1958 -Bruce